History of the Peloponnesian War

To this the Corinthians answered that if they would put off with their fleet and dismiss the barbarians from before Epidamnus, they would then consult of the matter; for before they could not honestly do it because whilst they should be pleading the case, the Epidamnians should be suffering the misery of a siege.

The Corcyraeans replied to this that if they would call back those men of theirs already in Epidamnus, that then they also would do as the Corinthians had required them; or otherwise they were content to let the men on both sides stay where they were and to suspend the war till the cause should be decided.

The Corinthians not assenting to any of these propositions, since their galleys were manned and their confederates present, having defied them first by a herald, put to sea with seventy-five galleys and two thousand men of arms, and set sail for Epidamnus against the Corcyraeans.

Their fleet was commanded by Aristeus the son of Pellicas, Callicrates the son of Callias, and Timanor the son of Timanthes; and the land forces by Archetimus the son of Eurytimus and Isarchidas the son of Isarchus.

After they were come as far as Actium, in the territory of Anactorium (which is a temple of Apollo and ground consecrated unto him) in the mouth of the Gulf of Ambracia, the Corcyraeans sent a herald to them at Actium to forbid their coming on, and in the meantime manned out their fleet, and, having repaired and made fit for service their old galleys and furnished the rest with things necessary, shipped their munition and went aboard.